Two protests, no new light on Colorado gun laws

Posted:
04/08/2013 08:38:13 AM MDT

In the days and weeks after the Aurora theater shooting last summer, a mass killing that left 12 dead and dozens injured, state leaders noted it was not the time to rush forward with new gun legislation proposals. They would wait.

So on Dec. 13, about five months after the Aurora event, Gov. John Hickenlooper announced he would be looking at state laws regarding guns, specifically looking at large ammunition magazines and even assault rifles. "The time is right," he said.

As the newspapers carrying the account of his conversation were hitting doorsteps the next day, Dec. 14, the most horrific mass shooting in the nation's history was unfolding. At Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, a shooter was using a rifle with a high-capacity magazine as well as other weapons to kill 20 young students and several of their teachers.

Four months later, and the Colorado Legislature has passed five pieces of legislation regarding guns: a limit on magazine capacity, a prohibition against online training for a concealed-carry permit, a prohibition on possession by those under a domestic violence restraining order, increased background check requirements and implementing fees for those checks.

On Wednesday, a pair of demonstrations regarding those new laws brought more heat than light to their meaning and outcomes.

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Several county sheriffs, including Larimer's Justin Smith, protested about the laws, with El Paso Sheriff Terry Maketa saying the measures had been "ramrodded" through the process and that the governor had lied about his intentions.

Several blocks away, President Obama extolled the virtues of the new laws, even though none of them has yet gone into effect and enforcement of them has not been attempted.

Clearly, the governor and majority Democrats had shown their intent to pursue gun legislation well before the start of this year's session. For some sheriffs in the state to indicate they will not even attempt to enforce the new laws is an indication they believe they are above the law -- an anathema to the American democratic experiment.

However, the sheriffs do have a point regarding the difficulty in uniformly enforcing the laws. If rural areas are indeed underserved for processes such as background checks, future legislative sessions should address it.

But to claim legislation signed into law a couple of weeks ago -- and which has yet to be in effect -- is either a success or a failure is far, far premature. Demonstrations aimed only to energize each side's base of support will not make residents safer.

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